Bank of Greece (BoG) Gov. George Provopoulos on Monday called for greater
determination by the government in promoting reforms, underlining that
the Medium-term Fiscal Consolidation Programme - announced last week --
was the "last chance" for restarting the Greek economy.

Presenting the central bank's annual report, Provopoulos noted that
"promoting reforms was lacking behind the pact needed and often their
implementation was delayed either because of civil administration
bureaucracy or because authorities are hesitating in view of public
reactions".

The central banker stressed that an economic recession would be milder
if the necessary measures and policies capable of encouraging recovery
were implemented faster.

The Bank of Greece expects the country's Gross Domestic Product to shrink
by at least 3.0 pct this year, with unemployment to surpass 15 pct and
the inflation rate - based on the harmonised consumer price index -
to fall to 2.5-3.25 pct in 2011.

Provopoulos once again rejected speculation of a restructuring of
the country¬ís debt, saying such a solution was neither desired nor
necessary. He said he supports measures to boost efforts towards fiscal
consolidation along with adopting a new growth model, focusing on boosting
saving, exports and investments.

Moreover, the BoG head recommended four policy priorities:

accelerating changes in the public sector combating tax evasion to
achieve a fairer distribution of tax burden and to establish a feeling
of social justice among citizens. Conversely, the central bank opposes
the imposition of new taxes on wage earners and enterprises reducing
spending in the public sector through the abolition of non-productive
agencies and a better exploitation of the 4th Community Support Framework,
and finally, attracting more foreign direct investments.

On the competitiveness front, Provopoulos said that although steps have
been made towards improvement, he noted that the government should abolish
hurdles still plaguing various sectors and services. He noted that a
6.0-pct improvement in the labour cost/per product unit in 2010 was not
enough to counterbalance accumulated losses in the period 2001-2009,
which total -28 pct. The central banker estimated that the country's
current accounts deficit will fall to 9.0 pct of GDP this year.

In terms of the closely watched domestic banking system, Provopoulos
cited a strong capital base for domestic financial institutions, however,
he stressed that an adjustment to new conditions was necessary.

Non-performing loans rose to 10.4 pct of total loans in 2010, from 7.7
pct in 2009, and predicted a continuation of the upward trend this year.

Finally, he predicted that credit expansion to households and enterprises
will remain slightly negative.

Government spokesman Giorgos Petalotis on Monday ruled out the likelihood
of debt restructuring stressing that this option "is not in our minds or
our decisions" and underlined that the government focuses on finalizing
the Medium-term Fiscal Strategy Framework which is designed to lead the
country out of the crisis.

Commenting on the position expressed on Sunday by former Prime Minister
Costas Simitis who called for debt restructuring as soon as possible,
Petalotis pointed out that the government's stance on the issue has been
made known repeatedly and in the most official way. He underlined that
"restructuring will be harmful for our country and Eurozone" adding that
the government is now focused on the materialization of the goals set
recently and through the "road map" announced.

He flatly denied press reports on allegedly behind-the-scenes discussions
made by the government, stressing that "debt restructuring is not in
our thoughts".

Petalotis also stressed that Simitis used to be a prime minister and
president of PASOK but "now there is a government that has a totally
different view".

On whether the government is considering an extension of the repayment
period, he underlined that "we are not discussing anything else other than
the issues put on public debate. We are discussing only the road map."

As regards the likelihood of a government reshuffle, Petalotis stated that
"there is no reason for it and no such discussion is being made."

Asked to comment on the Bank of Greece (BoG) governor report, he said
that "the government is aware of the state mechanism's dysfunctions;
is aware of the deficits and dysfunctions that go back for decades and
which is now trying to correct through hard work."

Responding to a relevant question, Petalotis denied that there were
disagreements in last Friday's cabinet meeting as regards the issue of
privatisations and spoke about "approaches and views". He clarified that
the discussion on the national plan and privatisations will continue
until May 15.

The Greek finance ministry on Monday denied a newspaper report that Greece
has asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Union for
the commencement of procedures for the restructuring of the Greek debt.

"That is not true," a ministry official said in reply to the reports,
and cited repeated denials by finance minister George Papaconstantinou
throughout the weekend in Washington, where he addressed the annual
IMF-World Bank meeting.

Main opposition New Democracy (ND) party on Monday again lashed out at
the government, accusing it of not negotiating the EC-ECB-IMF memorandum.

ND spokesman Yiannis Mihelakis referred to a joint statement on Ireland,
issued by the EU, ECB and IMF, with which the three parties expressed
satisfaction over the adoption of a new package of measures by the Irish
government, ones aimed at the creation of new jobs.

"It appears that the memorandum is not a taboo," he said, pointing
out that the terms of the memorandum, in essence, were changed in the
troika's first mission to Ireland. "This proves that there are policies,
outside the memorandum, that can be implemented provided that somebody
will negotiate them," he said, underlining that such proposals have been
tabled by ND leader Antonis Samaras long ago but they were rejected
by the government maintaining that they are not within the lines of
the memorandum.

Mihelakis stressed that "nobody knows the real state of the Greek economy,
as pointed out by government MPs and ministers, who call on the economic
staff to tell the truth to the Greek people."

Regarding debt restructuring, Mihelakis said such talk is "not helpful"
pointing out, however, that "the extension of the debt repayment period,
a reduction of the interest rate or both is not a bad scenario."

Referring to Parliament procedure, he stated that "the euro pact was
signed by 23 EU countries, is a intergovernmental decision and does
not go before national Parliaments," pointing out that "the permanent
support mechanism - that will be in effect as of 2013 - will have to be
ratified in national parliaments by 2012.

Mihelakis accused the government of "misleading the Greek people" by
presenting "a road map with lies" and repeated that censure motion is
a tool that will be used by ND when deemed necessary.

Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Secretary General Aleka Papariga,
addressing a rally in Syntagma Square in downtown Athens on Monday
evening, underlined the party's electoral readiness and called on the
people "not to be trapped in the political system's disguise scenarios,"
responding in this way to discussions on the creation of a cooperation
government.

Papariga focused her address on KKE's answers on the economiuc crisis and
on the shaping of the political terms for the reversal of correlations
and of the political system.

She called on the people "to take the historic decision, to give
unprecedented mass participation and effectiveness to the class struggles,
the political struggle. Together with KKE, in cooperation and alignment."

Papariga further said that her party also appeals to all those who, when
asked which party, the ruling PASOK or the main opposition New Democracy,
they trust, categorically reply "neither of the two."

Also referring to discussions on the restructuring of the debt, Papariga
said the discussions are real and not fixed and reveal what KKE has
said many times that the margins of the capitalist system to achieve a
relatively controlled and painless, for the system, exit from the crisis
are much narrower compared to the past.

[06] LAOS leader calls for end to debt restructuring speculation,
early elections

Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS) leader George Karatzaferis on Monday
stressed the need to stop ongoing public speculation that Greece might
be forced to restructure its debt, saying that this debate "should be
confined to a narrow circle, among those that have reason for it".

He strongly criticised statements on the issue by former PASOK premier
Costas Simitis, saying it was "sad" that the former and current prime
ministers in the same party could not come to an agreement.

Concerning policy on illegal migrants, meanwhile, Karatzaferis asserted
that Italy's decision to give migrants legal documents and let them
travel to other EU countries, such as France and Germany, was a proposal
he had been making for the past two years. He stressed that Greece had
to do the same in order to be rid of the burden of some two million
illegal migrants.

He also repeated a call for early elections, saying that these would be
less damaging then "then keeping this incompetent government in power".

Karatzaferis made the call while speaking to the radio station 'Real FM'.

Financial News

[07] Daskalopoulos: Political foot-dragging to blame for Memorandum
failure

Greece's political system has been dragging its feet and resisting
necessary changes and it was this that had undermined the policy of the
Memorandum, the head of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV)
Dimitris Daskalopoulos said on Monday at a Bank of Greece general meeting.

"Nearly a year ago, in order to avoid bankruptcy, the country committed
itself to an effort for overall reform within a specific time frame
and measures, but these were undermined politically and implemented in
a fragmented way. The failure that many attribute to the scarecrow of
the Memorandum is in reality our own failure - our own foot-dragging,"
Daskalopoulos said.

He asserted that the prospect of default remained because the government
had delayed making reforms while the opposition parties and clientelist
political system had 'sabotaged' their implementation.

"In the end, we are collectively refusing to change culture," SEV's
president stressed.

Referring to the debate underway about a possible restructuring of
Greece's debt and whether this was a "inevitable evil" or a way of solving
Greece's problems, Daskalopoulos noted that those recycling such ideas
were failing to tell the public critical truths about such a course.

"Whatever form a debt restructuring were to take now, it would inevitably
lead to even harsher measures, even greater sacrifices, an even greater
lowering of living standards and greater poverty for the overwhelming
majority of society," he stressed.

Even if restructuring were to take place as part of a broader European
solution, he added, it would not absolve Greece from the need to make
painful changes to modernise its economy and society.

Daskalopoulos also stressed that only such modernisation could bring
about a rapid return to growth, which was the only real way of saving
the country, and he emphasised that growth would not come about as a
result of state planning, subsidies or any developmental policy mix.

"[Growth] comes when economically active citizens decide to invest and
take risks. We will see growth from the real economy when there is not
the huge uncertainty created by the spectre of national bankruptcy and
the financial suffocation created by the collapse of the public sector,"
Daskalopoulos said.

SEV's president was strongly critical of those opposing the government's
plans to exploit public real estate as a way of generating revenues to
pay down debt, accusing critics of the plan of supporting the political
party cliques and interest groups that had been busy looting the state
sector for the past decades.

Daskalopoulos repeated the view that reforms, privatisations and the
medium-term fiscal plan for 2012-2015 unveiled by the government were the
"last chance" for the government to make the changes that would restore
Greece's credibility abroad and provide a sustainable future at home.

He also called it the last chance for Greece's political system to act
responsibly and tell people the truth about the difficulties that lay
ahead and the cost that had to be paid.

"Change is a painful one-way street but all other roads lead straight
off a cliff," he added, noting that the political system as a whole was
responsible for the current situation and would be held responsible in
its entirety in the case of a "national shipwreck".

The Greek government's programme of structural reforms and privatisations,
announced last Friday, is positive and ambitious, Chantal Huge, a European
Commission spokeswoman said on Monday.

Speaking to reporters, the EU spokeswoman said the EU's executive
characterised as "ambitious" both the Greek government's programme to
cut the country's fiscal deficit by 26 billion euros until 2015 and a
privatisation programme for the period 2011-2013.

The spokeswoman noted that an EC-ECB-IMF troika delegation will visit
Athens in May as part of its quarterly report on the Greek economy,
and will thoroughly examined the government's proposed plan. Commenting
on recurring speculation over a debt restructuring, she reiterated that
the European Commission was not taking part in such kind of talk.

European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Maria Damanaki
held meetings with representatives of Greek fish-farming associations
and Greek open-sea fishing enterprises on Monday, at the offices of the
European Commission Representation in Greece.

Her talks with fish farmers focused on competitiveness in the sector,
which is the country's strongest exporters after the pharmaceuticals
industry. Fish farmers' associations apparently pointed to delays in
absorbing EU funds for fisheries that could be used for investment in
the sector.

Damanaki said the Commission had been making great efforts to active
the mechanism for Greece and promised to closely monitor the reaction of
Greek authorities and exert pressure to speed up the necessary processes
to release the funds.

Her meeting with representatives of the national fishing confederation
and the Epirus federation of fishing associations focused mainly on
environmental degradation in Amvrakikos Bay, which is threatened with
an ecological disaster due to byproducts from industrial activity,
agricultural run-off, sewage and fish farming. These are creating
conditions of oxygen starvation and eutrophication that threaten to wipe
out fish stocks.

Damanaki briefed associations on the possibility of funding actions
to reduce the environmental pressures on the bay's ecosystems and
stressed the need to conform with EU fishing rules concerning the use
of destructive bottom trawlers and other restricted fishing methods.

Hellenic American Chamber of Commerce President Yiannos Grammatidis
said on the announcement, last week, of the government's Medium-Term
Plan that "the government is continuing not to clash with established
minority social interests by not proceeding with the awarding of the
management to natural monopolies such as electricity and water supply,
maintaining the control of relative infrastructures and to its complete
withdrawal from the banking sector. It is therefore doubtful whether
it will achieve the showing of interest by the international investing
community in these specific plans."

He added that "there is no doubt that the Medium-Term Plan announced by
the government as the continuation of the structural reforms programme
in the framework of changing the country's growth model, is considered
a positive step."

However, the Chamber discerns hesitation on the part of the government
in proceeding with the reforms. It also considers that this hesitation is
going along with the lack of growth orientation of the measures announced.

The Planning and Port Developmnt Committee convened under the chairmanship
of Marine Affairs, Islands and Fisheries ministry secretary general
N. Litinas on Monday and decided that the following projects will
go ahead:

1. The Exhibition-Convention and International Business Centre OLP SA.

2. The Southern Side of the Passenger Port of Piraeus to be extended so
as to serve the new places for the cruiseships.

3. For the 5 "star" hotel complex in the port zone of OLP SA.

Marine Affairs, Islands and Fisheries Minister Yiannis Diamantidis said
among other things in a statement that they are growth measures, they
will provide vivacity and growth in the economy and will also provide
many new jobs.

Attica pharmacists are once again threatening to cut off the supply
of medication on credit to those insured by the civil servants' social
insurance fund OPAD, starting on May 1, unless the promises to settle
OPAD's past debts to pharmacists are fulfilled by the end of this month.

In an announcement on Monday, the Attica Pharmacists' Association said
that not a single member of the association in west Attica had been paid
so far and that the process for paying them had not even started.

It also noted that very little of the money set aside to pay for
prescriptions filled out in 2011 had reached recipients that were members
of the association and that OPAD's debts to pharmacies for 2010 remained
unpaid, while their future "looked grim".

The head of the National Pharmacists Association Theodoros Abatzoglou
made similar warnings during a press conference on Monday, though he
appeared to consider that OPAD had set in motion the process to pay off
outstanding debts to pharmacies. He pointed to continued problems with
the Public Power Corporation (PPC) workers' fund, which he said had not
paid its debts in over a year, and the fund of Hellenic Telecommunications
Employees (OTE).

Abatzoglou also asserted that the state was planning to restrict the
profit margin for pharmacies to not more that 15 percent from the current
18.5-20 percent, which he predicted would lead some 20 percent of existing
pharmacies to close.

Holy Week began in Greece with fuel prices at an all-time record high on
Monday, as the average price of unleaded climbed to 1.706 euros per liter.

The highest prices were recorded on the island, especially Crete,
the Ionian Islands and the Cyclades Islands complex, while the lowest
prices were recorded in Athens and Thessaloniki, with unleaded ranging
from 1.617 euros per liter (at the cheapest gas station in Athens) to
1.886 euros per liter (at the most expensive filling station in Piraeus).

A nationwide general labour strike has been called for Wednesday, May 11
by the country's two largest umbrella union federations in the private
and public sector, GSEE and ADEDY, was announced by the GSEE executive
committee on Monday.

"The strike is the workers' response to the problems faced by the
unemployed, the workers and the pensioners who, according to the national
plan on the economy, are again the ones who are called to pay the bill,"
GSEE President Yiannis Panagopoulos stated.

Speculation over a debt restructuring by Greece is harshly hitting
the Greek debt market, with the yield spread between the 10-year Greek
and German benchmark bonds widening to new record-high levels of 1,127
basis point.

In the domestic electronic secondary bond market, the Greek 10-year bond
yielded 14.53 pct and the German benchmark yielded 3.26 pct. Turnover in
the market was an improved 107 million euros, of which 99 million were
sell orders and the remaining 8.0 million euros were buy orders. The
five-year benchmark bond was the most heavily traded security with a
turnover of 16 million euros.

People in the northern hemisphere, including Greece, will be treated
to a celestial 'fireworks' show this week, as the Lyrid meteor shower
peaks on April 22, Earth Day, with the greatest visibility between Friday
night and just before dawn Saturday.

The Lyrids, are a strong meteor shower occurring annually in mid-to-late
April, and take their name from the constellation Lyra, where the radiant
of the meteor shower appears to be located, but the source of the meteor
shower is actually the periodic Comet C/1861 Thatcher.

It is the oldest meteor shower recorded by humans, with the first recorded
observation being in 687 BC by a Chinese man who wrote of "stars falling
like rain".

The 'shooting stars' are in actuality the dusty trail of the comet
Thatcher. Particles the size of grains of sand shed by the comet shoot
through the sky at over 100,000 miles per hour that "light up" when the
reach the earth's atmosphere.

Hundreds of people said their last goodbye to noted singer and songwriter
Nikos Papazoglou on Monday, as he was laid to rest in Thessaloniki
cemetery.

Papazoglou died on Sunday at the age of 63 after a long battle with
cancer.

He was born in Thessaloniki and began writing songs in 1965 when he
was briefly a member of the pop band "Olympians". Over a course of 30
years he founded a recording studio in Thessaloniki's Toumba district,
where dozens of local artists recorded their music.

Papazoglou is regarded as one of the founders of the so-called
Thessaloniki school of contemporary popular Greek music.

A 38-year-old woman that had undergone a successful heart transplant
seven years ago gave birth to a healthy baby boy at an Athens maternity
hospital on Monday morning. Doctors stressed that this was the only such
case in Greece and one of the rare instances where a heart transplant
patient had later become a mother worldwide.

"The happy mother is the first instance where the entire process
(heart transplant, pregnancy and delivery) took place in Greece," an
announcement said.

The delivery was carried out by caesarian section at 8:00 a.m. on Monday,
while the mother had a history of serious heart disease and undergone
a heart transplant operation in Athens in 2004.

Anti-riot police forces are to withdraw from Keratea, eastern Attica,
where protests against the construction of a garbage processing plant
by local residents continued for the past four months, it was announced
on Monday after a meeting between Citizens' Protection Minister Christos
Papoutsis and Lavreotiki Mayor Costas Levantis.

Metropolitan Nikolaos of Mesogaia and Lavreotiki served as a mediator
during the meeting.

"Having dialogue is very hard in cases where passions run high and
dogmatism is a longstanding practice?Creative and appeasing interventions
such the one coming from Metropolitan Nikolaos of Mesogeia and Lavreotiki
are necessary to have results," Papoutsis said after the meeting at his
office in the ministry building in Athens.

Riot police started withdrawing from the area on the condition that
local residents remove barricades, thus ending a months-long standoff,
and opening the way to new proposals and a re-examination of the issue.

A specific proposal on waste management will be presented by Levantis
and a delegation of local residents in the meeting they will have next
Thursday with the environment minister and other government officials,
Papoutsis said.

A double murder involving astrologer Miltiades Moutafis and Paraskevi
Gezou, the owner of an online cosmetics sales firm, which took place in
the Athens suburb of Halandri on Feb. 26 2009 has reportedly been solved.

A 36-year-old owner of a coffee shop in the Aghios Panteleimonas district
of Athens with a criminal record was arrested and charged with the double
homicide. The motives behind the crime have not yet been clarified,
although police are examining the possibility of a "murder contract".

The press & communication office of the Greek embassy in the Chinese
capital will circulate the fifth edition of its quarterly cultural review
"epiKoInoNiA" this week, a bilingual publication in English and Chinese.

"Epikoinonia" is Greek for "communication", with the capital letters "K",
"I", "N" and "A", ergo "KINA", meaning China in Greek.

This quarter's edition will focus on shadow theatre medium in Greece,
particularly the "Karagiozis" theme.

The initiative is designed, composed and published exclusively by the
press & communication office in Beijing.

[27] Court upholds employee's firing over Facebook, Internet 'surfing'
while at work

A First Instance Court in Athens on Monday ruled in favour of an airline
company that had fired an employee for "surfing" the social networking
site Facebook and other websites while at work.

The court ruled that the company was justified to end the work contract
with a female employee without severance pay on the justification that
she was visiting internet websites, including the best-known social
networking sites, for hours at a time and on a daily basis.

Coast guard authorities in the port of Igoumenitsa, extreme northwest
Greece, on Monday announced the arrest of a 46-year-old truck driver
after 34 illegal migrants, identified as Asians, were found in his
Italy-bound lorry.

The illegals were hidden in a specially designed crypt in the truck,
which was carrying insulation materials.

In a separate incident also in Igoumenitsa, police arrested an Iranian
and an Iraqi on charges of transporting illegal migrants from Afghanistan
(three adults and three minors) in their vehicles. The six had also been
supplied with fake Turkish passports, reportedly for a sum of 12,000
euros each.

Both alleged migrant smugglers and illegal migrants will be led before
a prosecutor.

The death of Xanthi defensive midfielder Olubayo Adefemi shocked the
local football establishment on Monday.

The 26-year-old Nigerian player was killed in a traffic accident on the
Egnatia motorway in the early morning hours of Monday near the city of
Kavala, in northeast Greece.

Adefemi had received permission from his team to travel to his homeland
for his wedding.

Before arriving in the Greek Super League, Adefemi had played for France's
Boulogne before arriving in Xanthi.

He played in 24 matches for Skoda Xanthi in the 2010-2011, scoring two
goals. Adefemi also had caps with the Nigerian national team, seeing
action in Austria, Romania, as well as with three teams in Israel.

Condolences poured in from other teams in Greece, players, and the
federation.

Rainy weather and northerly winds are forecast in most parts of the
country on Tuesday, with wind velocity reaching 3-7 beaufort. Temperatures
will range between 4C and 19C. Cloudy with local showers in Athens,
with northerly 4-6 beaufort winds and temperatures ranging from 7C to
15C. Same in Thessaloniki, with temperatures ranging from 7C to 15C.